Steve Curtis

Caledonia Mining Corporation

SO far, so good for Steve Curtis who took over the helm at Caledonia Mining following the acrimonious departure of predecessor Stefan Hayden in late 2014. The company has a single asset, the Blanket gold mine in Zimbabwe. The mine, bought from Kinross Gold in 2006, has had a chequered past. Today, however, it’s trucking along quite nicely with a new mine manager, Dana Roets, a recently upgraded resource, and high ambitions to double production to about 80,000 ounces a year by 2021. Production for this year is put at 50,000 oz – quite a leap from the 42,806 oz achieved last year. As a company, Caledonia is in good shape notwithstanding the political and business climate squalls that buffet it from time to time. In fact, Caledonia is less vulnerable than most to President Robert Mugabe’s caprice having fully indigenised (it owns 49% of Blanket). The state’s decision to relax gold royalties to 3% of revenue from 5% is another boon. The stock, though, is oddly vulnerable to retail activity in Canada where it is listed, hence Curtis’ interest in attracting more institutional support. Perhaps they will take note of its 7% dividend yield (yes, it pays dividends). Curtis is also hoping shareholders approve a re-domicile to Jersey from Canada which will protect some investors from Canadian withholding tax.

LIFE OF STEVE

Curtis is a chartered accountant and has been counting beans for over 30 years. He joined Caledonia in 2006 becoming its CEO in 2014 after serving as CFO. Prior to that, Curtis was financial director for Avery Dennison SA. He graduated from the University of Cape Town.

Miningmx is a digital publication which provides independent news and analysis related to the African mining sector. The publication does not republish the content of other news vendors and focuses on producing best content through its network of independent journalists. Read More...